"We are the only country in history that ever deliberately changed its ethnic makeup, and history has few examples of 'diversity' creating a stable society." - Richard Lamm, former governor of Colorado

Thursday, September 21, 2006

British, Irish, Celtic or Basque?

The fact that the British and the Irish both live on islands gives them a misleading sense of security about their unique historical identities. But do we really know who we are, where we come from and what defines the nature of our genetic and cultural heritage? Who are and were the Scots, the Welsh, the Irish and the English? And did the English really crush a glorious Celtic heritage?

Everyone has heard of Celts, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. And most of us are familiar with the idea that the English are descended from Anglo-Saxons, who invaded eastern England after the Romans left, while most of the people in the rest of the British Isles derive from indigenous Celtic ancestors with a sprinkling of Viking blood around the fringes.

Yet there is no agreement among historians or archaeologists on the meaning of the words "Celtic" or "Anglo-Saxon." What is more, new evidence from genetic analysis (see note below) indicates that the Anglo-Saxons and Celts, to the extent that they can be defined genetically, were both small immigrant minorities. Neither group had much more impact on the British Isles gene pool than the Vikings, the Normans or, indeed, immigrants of the past 50 years.

The genetic evidence shows that three quarters of our ancestors came to this corner of Europe as hunter-gatherers, between 15,000 and 7,500 years ago, after the melting of the ice caps but before the land broke away from the mainland and divided into islands. Our subsequent separation from Europe has preserved a genetic time capsule of southwestern Europe during the ice age, which we share most closely with the former ice-age refuge in the Basque country. The first settlers were unlikely to have spoken a Celtic language but possibly a tongue related to the unique Basque language.

Another wave of immigration arrived during the Neolithic period, when farming developed about 6,500 years ago. But the English still derive most of their current gene pool from the same early Basque source as the Irish, Welsh and Scots. These figures are at odds with the modern perceptions of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon ethnicity based on more recent invasions. There were many later invasions, as well as less violent immigrations, and each left a genetic signal, but no individual event contributed much more than 5 per cent to our modern genetic mix.

I have read in the New York Times an article and the journalist says: "In Dr. Oppenheimer’s reconstruction of events, the principal ancestors of today’s British and Irish populations arrived from Spain about 16,000 years ago, speaking a language related to Basque."http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/science/06brits.html

My mother tongue is Euskera (Basque language) and I learn English and Irish Gaelic since some months ago. I can't find any in common... and I can't understand the conclusion of them. Why are not any English or Irish word of Basque origin? Opposite, you can find many similaties of our language with Bereber n' Chinese languages... Curious!

Here's other report in the BBC. It's says "The Welsh and Irish Celts have been found to be the genetic blood-brothers of Basques, scientists have revealed."http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/1256894.stm

What I could say...There are many hypotheses about our connection with other languages, but sadly, nobody know the truth.

If you are interested in the Basque language, you can read in the web site of the University of Reno, Nevada.

If people didn't start interfering into mine and my families life then there wouldn't be issues like this that you need to address, would there? As for getting a jobI think there wouldn't be such a problem, if people give me a chance to recover from schizophrenia instead of taking advantage of the situation for there ends, such as a certain person, it wouldn't be a major problem despite certain health issues that I've inherited with regards to the state of my heart. I'm not exactly work shy considering I entertained the thought of doing a bit of charity work last year and doing work experience before most. Not that I think it's really your concern and therefore don't have to bother explaining my actions to non-family member's.